Glus
The Glus, also referred to as the Deathspinner or The Beast, is the namesake of the Maze of the Beast and was the guardian of the Amethyst. History The origins of the Glus are still unknown, although there are theories. It is one of many different species of sea monsters that went to hunt on land (including the Kobb) and thus escaped the tectonic shift that joined the Land of Dragons to Pirra. One tale that probably describes its origin is a Tenna Birdsong tale known as "Little Enna", which tells of the young girl Enna who finds a smooth stone that hatces a "sweet sea worm". When Enna shows the worm to her mother, she is terrified and commands her daughter to take the worm back to the sea. Enna is saddened and run off, declaring that if the worm belongs to the sea then she does as well. While she is running a wave of water causes her to fall into a cavity in the earth. No one knows what happened to Enna, but many believe the sea worm eventually grew up to become the dreaded beast, the Glus, from the last lines of the story: "Since that sad day long years have flown, But still beneath the seething foam, Where Enna sleeps, The sea-worm creeps, and spins its webs of bone-white stone." It may be that the Glus is trying to protect Enna. ''The Deltora Book of Monsters'' Ranesh explains to Josef of when he'd been captured by a group of pirates. They threw the ship's captain into the Maze of the Beast and Ranesh was lowered on a rope into the maze to see what kind of fate he suffered if he refused to cooperate with the pirates. The Glus was shown capturing the captain in its tendrils, but Ranesh was pulled out just before the Glus came upon the doomed captain. ''The Maze of the Beast'' Lief caught a quick vision of the Glus when he touched the Opal. Later, he, Barda, and Jasmine are tossed into the Maze of the Beast with the pirate Milne. Almost instantly the Glus arrives, causing Milne to panic and attract its attention away from the companions. They later stumbled upon it as it was festing on the dead pirate, but Barda and Jasmine led it away while Lief searched for the Amethyst. Once he'd found it, he discovered a crack in the walls that lead to the outside. Barda and Jasmine returned, with the Glus following, but the three of them were able to enlarge the hole and escape. The Glus did not follow them, instead choosing to fix the hole and protect its home. ''The Isle of Illusion'' The Glus is mentioned as one of the monsters that Lief, Barda and Jasmine could not fight.'' '' Physical appearance The Glus is a giant, slug-like monster with blue glowing stripes on its body and blue-white skin. Spines encircle the end of its tail. The Glus has fine hairs on its underbelly that allows it to feel movement and captures its prey by spitting a milky, glue-like substance (similar to the silk a spider spins for its web and catching prey) that hardens like cement when it dries. The walls of the maze also seem to drip with the same substance. The walls of the Maze are composed of a combination of rock, the creature's glue-like substance and the remains of its victims. If its prey stays still long enough, the substance hardens like cement leaving it easy prey for the Glus to consume when it finally catches up. Its body is elastic, able to squeeze through tight crevices. In the anime, the Glus was also shown to have rapid-healing abilities. Diet The Glus is carnivorous eating anything that it can catch within its lair. Behavior The Glus spends most of its time roaming The Maze of The Beast, waiting for its next meal. Although it is blind and deaf, it is attracted by movement within the maze just as a spider is attracted to movement within its web. It tends to spit its goop at any movement, ranging from a pebble falling to a potential prey item. As soon as something has been confirmed to be food, The Glus will envelop the object in a tight cocoon of its goop, then devour its helpless prey. Although the Glus is not a particularly fast creature (it will move with astounding speed in great need however), all it has to do is follow its prey and wait. When enraged, The Glus can exhibit bursts of speed. To the Glus, its lair is more important than food, demonstrated when it sealed a hole that threatened to release water into its maze. Even though the Glus is a natural creature, it caused the Emerald to dull. Trivia * The Glus' name is an anagram of the word slug. * The Glus bears a strong resemblance to El Gusano Gigante from Godzilla the Animated Series. * Glus is one of the few monsters that was never even remotely killed, defeated, of even bested, the protagonists merely escape from it; the only other one that were never defeated are the Hive (who was bested as it was stolen from) while all other antagonists were defeated or bested in some way rather than simply escaped by the end of the Deltora books. However as the Hive was bested more in the anime (lit on fire from a blister) the Glus is one of the sole monsters in either slightly different continuities to never be defeated. * It and the Hive are also the only major antagonist evil creatures still at large in the Deltora timeline Category:Monsters Category:Creatures Category:Gem Guardians Category:Deltora